Glastonbury Festival 2011: live - Telegraph Glastonbury Festival 2011: live Live coverage of day three at Glastonbury 2011 featuring Beyonce, Paul Simon, Plan B and Primal Scream. Image 1 of 2 A festival goer dances in front of the Other stage at Glastonbury Festival on the last day of the music event Photo: Reuters Image 1 of 2 Beyoncé Knowles will be the headline act on the Pyramid Stage on the final day of the 2011 Glastonbury Festival Photo: GETTY By Martin Chilton , Digital Culture Editor 11:50PM BST 26 Jun 2011 • Beyonce 'ring of steel' for headline concert • Fans wear Wombles mask as Orinoco struts his stuff Latest: 23:59 And that's all from our live coverage of Glastonbury. We hope you enjoyed it. Goodnight.

23:45 And to close the Glastonbury festival 2011, Lucy Jones on Beyonce's headline set: Related Articles Beyoncé: 4, CD of the week 23 Jun 2011 Well, the sceptics were wrong. Michael Eavis's decision to book the queen of pop to headline the Sunday night was pure genius. Decked out in a sequinned leotard-type jacket, her mane of gold curls and the highest heels I've ever seen, Beyonce gave an electric hurricane of a performance. It was totally girl power. She was backed by an all-female group including a trio of singers called The Mummas. Tricky was the special guest but didn't actually do anything on the stage, which was weird. She scatted and freestlyed throughout the set, dropping You Oughta Know by Alanis Morrissette, Baby by Prince and Sex of Fire by Kings of Leon and a medley of Destiny's Child hits. She pouted, laughed, writhed, jived and shook her a-- in front of what seemed like the entire festival and held us in the palm of her hand throughout.

The haters who scorned her headine slot and dissed her for being too cheesy would be hard pressed to find anyone with a better voice or moves in Worthy Farm. Her version of Etta James's At Last was almost overwhelmingly good; girls around me were actually weeping. Songs from the new record - Girls, Until the end of time and The best thing I ever had - stood up very well, despite recent unfavourable reviews of the album. A lot of effort was put into the pyrotechnics, although she didn't really need them, being enough of a firework already. She really is the goddess of pop, and tonight she proved it at Glastonbury. 20:50 The Pyramid Stage crowd show their delight at seeing Pendulum in action. Next up, the closing act Beyonce. 20:45 Neil McCormick sounds mellow after a day of sun and song: Now that mud has dried, people moving around #glasto site, stalls & side stages. Starting to feel like a festival. #bitlate 20:31 Lucy Jones reviews The Eels: Mr E of The Eels is on tremendous form.

Backed by a funky brass section and the rest of his bearded band, he's charismatic and engaging. The set is a real mix of songs, old and new and the enthusiasm of the band is contagious. From the moment they played the energetic Flyswatter, the band rollicked through the set like dynamite. Mr E and co. are enjoying it as much as we are and it's perfect for a beautiful evening as the crowd breathe sighs of relief that it's started to cool down a bit. This is one of the highlights of the weekend for me. 20:25 The official Primal Scream twitter account just tweeted: Glastonbury!!! Here's the Band in action courtesy of the BBC: 20:10 From @kidzfield: Michael Eavis is here watching @rastamouse_irie with Tony, who runs Kidzfield. They met backstage for photo op: Let's hope Kate Moss doesn't get turned away if she tries to get into the Rastamouse after-party without a ticket. 20:04 Lucy Jones updates us from the Other Stage: Novocaine for the soul! My first single. What was yours?

This Eels set is seriously good #glasto 20:00 There could be a fair few red bodies having after-sun lotion applied after today's baking sunshine. Not sure who Mr Shadow is, though - looks a bit like racing's John McCririck . . . 19:59 One boy found a good way to cool down at Glastonbury - get someone to spray you with water: 19:55 Neil McCormick's Glastonbury review so far: IT IS sometimes suggested that Glastonbury isn’t really a rock festival any more, and there is some truth in that: it’s more like an-end-of-the-world party being staged at the scene of a humanitarian disaster. But this year they did find time to showcase some of Britain and Ireland’s most epic rock bands, including U2, Coldplay, Elbow and a secret set from Radiohead, who are probably wishing they had kept it more secret.

At least 60,000 schlepped through a gloopy, boot-sucking vortex of mud to stand at the distant Park stage watching stick insects run through their new and rather unloved album of quasi-ambient micro-grooves, with the sound not quite carrying up the hill. Four songs in, half the crowd turned around and schlepped back towards the Pyramid stage, where an irate Morrissey whinged about the scheduling to a half empty field, moaning at the few who had made the effort: “You’re just here to see U2 anyway. I’ll sing as fast as I can.” U2 missed last year’s sunshine festival because Bono put his back out. They finally made it this year, in the drizzle. Bono sang a snatch of Jerusalem, serenading the bedraggled revellers with a vision of England’s green and pleasant land. To be fair, you couldn’t really see the mud from the Pyramid stage, just a vast teaming hillside of humanity, waving flags, burning flares and singing along in lusty voice to Where the Streets Have No Name, a song written about a desert but which applied just as easily to Glastonbury’s blitzkrieged fields.

Removed from the comfort zone of their usual sci-fi staging, U2 were forced to rely on road warrior skills, and proved consummate crowd-pleasers whose greatest strengths lie with heart and art, not space-age showbiz. At the end of the set, Bono pulled an Irish and a Union flag from the crowd to drape over amplifiers but that was about as political as it got, if you discount the limp balloon of a tax protest. Glastonbury 2011 had everything the British weather could throw at it, from torrential rain to baking sunshine. But mud was its defining feature. Before the festival had properly begun, 200,000 visitors had tramped the thoroughfares and campsites into a quagmire that made every step a battle. The wisest option was to settle in one spot, try not to sink too deep, and enjoy whatever appeared in front of you. Among the best things I caught by accident: BB King playing hot Chicago blues on a wet Somerset afternoon, Paolo Nutini ripping it up like a Glaswegian Otis Redding, and heavy-rock girl group Stonefield partying like it was 1969.

You could argue the festival has been a victim of its success, but there is also a kind of avarice about its transformation from small hippy gathering to a world famous celebration of pop culture with too much going on for anyone to get to grips with. The defining characteristic is a kind of belligerently exuberant stoicism: drunken, windswept, sunburned, mud-splattered campers in danger of being swept away in rivers of urine from overflowing latrines, but refusing to move because they are having such a good time. The secret of Glastonbury may lay deep within the British psyche, where hardship is required to break down social reserve. It’s a festival of the Dunkirk spirit. “Is Glastonbury the best party on earth?” asked Guy Garvey of Elbow, looking out from the Pyramid stage on a cloudy but balmy Saturday evening. Well, that probably depends on your attitude to hygiene. Hippos would have a field day. The hippies didn’t seem to be doing too badly either. Elbow were magnificent, their poetic anthems of the common man consecrating a sunset singalong.

Like Saturday’s headliners, Coldplay, they have grown up at Glastonbury and understand this audience in a way that U2 don’t. For the British bands, this wasn’t just a performance, it was a celebration. There was a real sense of togetherness in the raised voices, a Glastonbury field choir seeking epiphany after endurance. Coldplay threw in every rock showbiz trick: fireworks, lasers, confetti, balloons. But it was the thrilling dynamics of their gear-shifting songs and simple singalong melodies that carried the night, lifting spirits so high not even mud could bog us down. 19:40 Time for another clip - this time Don McLean singing American Pie. McLean, now 65, had an amazing online row a few years ago with a former support act artist called Andy Breckman. It got very personal. But it's still a great song . . . 19:36 Lucy Jones is having fun on the Other Stage: So happy to be at The Eels. Funky brass section and lots of beards. Flyswatter one of my highlights so far 19:34 Neil McCormick has been watching Robyn Hitchcock.

Here's his verdicts: Up at Spirit of 71 stage for a bit of Robyn Hitchcock, bridging the mysterious gap between hippies & punks. Hippunks? #glasto Robyn Hitchcock is an acquired taste but once acquired its hard to get rid of. He's rocking another dimension. #glasto Robyn Hitchcock is especially good if you like random slightly out of tune psychedelic lead guitar solos. Fine by me. #glasto Robyn Hitchcock: "most rock music is made to be heard on your own in a bedroom in the dark. But this is the next best thing." #glasto Ah, happily for those sharing his Yurt, Neil has wandered off now to clean up: Now that the mud is drying, managing to wander the site, take in a curry & a Greenpeace shower. #glasto 19:25 Plan B have finished on the Pyramid Stage. Here's the band with their stage layout: Plan B at Glastonbury 19:23 Paul Simon on BBC live streaming now. Playing slow version of Slip Slidin' Away . . .

('a good day, well it ain't got no rain') 18:40 There is a new statement from the police about the death of Christopher Shale at Glastonbury: Police are continuing to investigate an unexplained death at the Glastonbury Festival. Formal identification is yet to take place but at this stage the police can confirm they believe it to be 56-year-old Christopher Shale. An investigation is continuing to establish the circumstances surrounding his death but police are not looking for anyone else. A post-mortem is due to take place today. His disappearance was brought to the attention of the police overnight and both officers and festival staff worked together to locate him. The discovery of his body was reported to police at around 9am. Speaking about the death, Inspector Chris Morgan said: “Our thoughts are with the family at this difficult time. We are continuing with our enquiries to find out how Christopher died and are providing support to the family through a dedicated family liaison officer.” 18:35 Neil McCormick tweets: TV on the Radio playing one everybody knows: who you gonna call, Glastonbury?

Ghostbusters 18:31 The crowd seem to be enjoying the sun - a happy festival goer and some policemen with snazzy sun glasses: 18:20 Lucy Jones gives her final verdict on Paul Simon: Paul Simon's afternoon set was a tad disappointing. Little banter, very down-tempo and he didn't even play Graceland. It was so cheesy the Pyramid stage resembled a triangle of mild Dairylea. Still, he drew a massive crowd battling through the burning sun who stayed through to the end and it was perfect for the chilled out family-friendly Sunday afternoon slot. There are tons of people suffering sunburn and sunstroke. The heavy rain we had on Friday is almost preferable. Excitement about Beyonce's headline set tonight is getting everyone through though. 18:00 You've got to love the British weather. You never know with an umbrella at Glastonbury. Come rain or come shine . . . The sun is out on the final day. Where's my sun brolly?

17:55 Paul Simon concentrating very hard: 17:41 The music writer Dorian Lynskey (@Dorianlynskey), who was giving a talk at Glastonbury, tweets: It pains me to be missing Paul Simon, Beyonce and the sunshine but I'm leaving #glasto. God I love it. Lynskey will be talking at The Telegraph's Ways With Words book festival next month. He wrote an excellent book on Protest songs this year called 33 Revolutions Per Minute. Martin Chilton loved the book. His Telegraph review is here: 17:33 A final Glastonbury picture from The Strumpettes. The all-girl band went down a storm The Strumpettes on the Croissant Neuf bandstand. The blonde girl in the middle, whose stage name is Velma valentine, is actually Telegraph Commercial Editor Rebecca Davies. For more information on the band, see The Strumpettes perform at Glastonbury 17:28 Caller to BBC live feed says they live six miles away but could still hear U2 and Coldplay. It's baking today at Glastonbury. Have a look at this photo - still wish you were there?

17:27 Neil McCormick adds: Made it down to bottom of the hill for Paul Simon, cos I've got diamonds on the soles of my shoes. #glasto 17:25 More Paul Simon reaction from Lucy Jones: Lots and lots of sunburn at #glasto. Paul Simon new stuff is a bit boring and self-indulgent ..... Hmm. Slip Sliding Away now but Paul needs to ramp it up a bit. V down tempo #glasto Is paul simon falling asleep? #glasto 17:20 The Wombles have been one of the hits of the final day at Glastonbury - with lots of people walking around with Wombles masks on after their set. Orinoco of The Wombles performing on the Avalon Stage at the Glastonbury Music Festival. 17:12 Neil McCormick is watching Paul Simon, who at 70 is packing them in the blazing heat: The Pyramid hillside for Paul Simon has become logjammed, immobolised in the heat. Looks like everyone in #glasto is here. . . . In theory Paul Simon in the #glasto sunshine should be a great gig.

But its all about geography. Up on hill its too quiet, too crowded. Read Neil's review of Paul Simon's new album here 17:07 Telegraph's very own Neil McCormick is tweeting again: #glastonbury, you look so different in the sunshine. It is amazing how quickly mud dries up. The smell of leaky portaloos still lingers, ... 17:05 Singer @JosieLong I am about to go on at the leftfield. I don't think I have ever been more nervous and jittery. #glastonbury 16:52 Lucy Jones says that Paul Simon has an enormous crowd for his set on the Pyramid Stage. "Much bigger than U2 or Coldplay. So far he's played So Beautiful and Standing on the Corner of Lafayette. Rumours that Art Garfunkel will join him at some point.

Simon's got some great moves and it's perfect weather for Graceland." 16:38 Telegraph's Lucy Jones reports: "Very subdued atmosphere in the backstage area today" For the latest on the death of Conservative Christopher Shale at Glastonbury, see our news story: Police cordon off an area at Glastonbury 16:28 Mumford & Sons played their own mini-set at the Strummerville (named after Clash legend Joe Strummer) area of Glastonbury last night around 11pm. Here is BBC footage of them performing Roll Away Your Stone from the main Other Stage on Friday: 16:14 From @GlastoFest Huge queue for the UK premiere of Cars 2 in the Cinema Tent. Some properly excited kids here. 16:10 Indie LA band Foster The People interviewed after their concert. They are asked if being headliners on main stage at Glastonbury is their main ambition now. "Well that or the moon" singer quips. 15:55 Sven-Goran Eriksson's former lover Nancy Dell'Olio makes a surprise appearance at Glastonbury.

Although Nancy looks like she may have had a few mud facials in her time, she has not got very nice things to say about the Glastonbury crowd. "These people at Glastonbury, some of them, they really seem to smell not good" she says. A helpful man actually gave her a lift in a wheelbarrow through the mud so she would not mark her cream linen boots. Now all lovers of fine literature will know that Nancy (below) is presently working on a novel. She recently said: "Women and men love me. I'm the kindest person I know". Bless. 15:49 Rastamouse asked for 'clean white T-shirt' and peace and love as his special artist's 'demand'. He went to see Jimmy Cliff, of course. He is on stage at the Kid's Field later 15:48 No, you're not taking drugs if you watching the live BBC online feed for Glastonbury . . . it's RastaMouse from CBBC's in the studio. He's got a very big hat.

14:51 Jazz singer Clare Teal (@clareteal) tweets about her great time at Glastonbury: Just back from a fab day at Glasto. A few hours kip then off to London to sing with John Wilson and his orchestra for Radio3 lah di dah. 14:50 Martin Chilton reports on the jazz singer Clare Teal Another busy lady is the wonderful jazz singer Clare Teal. She was at Glastonbury yesterday performing songs from her fine new album Hey Ho at Bourbon Street. Clare, who will be at the Brecon Jazz Festival in August, dropped into the Telegraph offices last week to film an interview and had some lovely Glastonbury tales. In her first Glastonbury appearance a few years, a morning show, she was surprised to look up and see - close to the stage - a naked woman, in her sixties, dancing away carrying only a handbag. That's the Glastonbury spirit, I guess. She also said that artists are allowed 'special demands' and hers was for dark and milk chocolate hobnobs. Unfortunately, it was a baking day so when finished her set all that was left was like a chocolate version of the Somme.

But it did have light and dark contours. Clare Teal will be at The Brecon Jazz Festival in August 14:35 Talking of retro - one of the best outfits at this Glastonbury has been worn by Jimmy Cliff. Here's some BBC video of him singing Upside Down... 14:31 Don McLean has just finished on the Pyramid Stage - he did an 18-minute version of American Pie. Hands up who wouldn't sing along to: And in the streets: the children screamed, The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed. But not a word was spoken; The church bells all were broken. And the three men I admire most: The father, son, and the holy ghost, They caught the last train for the coast The day the music died. 14:25 Telegraph Music critic Neil McCormick is tweeting some of the Glastonbury rumours flying about (Bono arriving disguised as Jay Z) this is his latest tweet (@neil_mccormick) & another hack swears he saw Will Young at Metronomy in a wig. Not sure if it was a disguise or a new image.

#glasto #rumours 14:20 There is a fair bit of material for nostalgists at Glastonbury today. The Wombles, Kool And The Gang, Don McLean, Duane Eddy. And, performing in the Cabaret Tent at 15.20, is Attila The Stockbroker. Crumbs, I first saw him at Glastonbury in 1989. He's wonderfully droll, and here's a portion of his take on becoming middle-aged: It's time to be quiet, say 'yes', watch TV - High spot of the week, a nice dinner party. Polite conversation until you doze off The topics: house prices, taxation and goff. (That's golf, by the way, in case you're unsure Not pale folk in graveyards discussing The Cure) 14:01 Just to prove that the sun can shine on Glastonbury, Sunday was living up to its name. Good to see festival goers taking proper precautions with temperatures reaching 25 degrees this afternoon . . . Wonder if these visitors went to the Sun Meditation Talk that was on at Glastonbury this morning in the AstroDome workshop?

13:59 After another marathon stint in front of the television, Telegraph music editor Bernadette McNulty offers her conclusions on day two of the Festival (below). You can read her verdict on day one here . Despite watching Lauren Laverne say goodnight to me, I switch on 6Music the next morning to find her chirping happily away. Cleary she hadn’t been imbuing the same dodgy cider as I had. I decide to switch my festival empathy drink to chai, a tea whose spicy bouquet blooms in the damp ambience of a festival when you haven’t brushed your teeth properly for days. Not only are they re-running U2’s performance on the radio, but when I turn to the start of BBC2’s coverage, there they are again. Where as I thought watching Glastonbury on the TV might allow me to see more of the action, I realise that for all the red buttons in the world, choice, as is so often in life, is an illusion, and I might spend the weekend trapped in a groundhog day of Bono eternally singing to an astronaut and gushing about the power of Avalon.

However, the improved weather means that Jo Whiley and Mark Radcliffe have moved off the sofas to their odd Wickerman-style outdoor set and the musical tone switches from the indie-heavy line-up of the previous day to a more eclectic fare. Rumer’s caramel bunny lullabies seems to be having a Paul McKenna-type effect on the audience as the cameraman pans to shots of couples canoodling on what must still be very muddy ground. Women performers, thin on the ground on Friday, burst from the screen. Anna Calvi and Warpaint make their guitars squall with sexy menace and then Alison Mosshart from the Kills flails around dramatically. Brit newcomer Jessie J pulls off not only singing fiercely from a throne with one leg strapped in a full cast, but also the first festival ‘moment’ of the day when she brings out a young girl from the audience to sing with her. After introducing a delightful performance of Windmills of my Mind from Noel Harrison, who performed at the first festival in 1971, Radcliffe is replaced by Zane Lowe and he and Whiley revive their fraught C-P30 and Chewbacca chemistry.

Chewbacca brings on some more testosterone-fuelled men in the shape of Gaslight Anthem before C-P30 stalks off to ‘get some sunscreen.’ Later on, Chewbacca is banished to the stage wings to introduce Coldplay alone where he can declaim to his heart’s content. By contrast, the warm banter of Hepburn and Stacey on BBC3 aka Fearne and Reg, is really starting to grow on me and amongst a more pop-centric line-up, including dance-grime star Tinie Tempah (increasingly resembling Will Smith in the Fresh Prince of Bel Air) they seem much more at giggly ease. However, they are still stuck on their impractically pale sofas and chastise the band Friendly Fires for bringing their dirty boots onto the rugs. “The studio manager will kill us,” frets Fearne. With his fantastically mud-sodden trousers, Guy Garvey from Elbow must have been made to sit on plastic bags when he later joins them in the studio but on stage, he and the camera crew revel in the burnished early evening sunlight.

Garvey orders the crowd to wave their hands and the sea of bare swaying arms looks like a giant coral reef has appeared in front of the Pyramid Stage. Over on the West Holt stage, Syrian singer Omar Souleyman is provoking an hilarious outbreak of uninhibited ‘ethnic dancing’ in a wild-eyed rag-taggle crowd. But the BBC had more on its mind than funny dancing and mud, namely the twin threats of swearing and strobes. The Wu Tang Clan’s set on Friday was thoroughly sieved through the bleeping machine but Tinie Tempah manages to sneak a few expletives past the broadcasting guard dogs. Strobes, however, cannot be edited out though and warnings jump on screen and from the presenters with what feels like rising panic. Even from my position, 113 miles away from Pilton, Saturday night’s lighting looks like a Close Encounters riot of laser beams, pulsating pyramids and in dance duo the Chemical Brothers’ case, 3D projections that burst from the screen, throbbing over the furiously dancing crowd.

Usually watching other people rave their heads off while men crouch behind banks of machines is a rather dull experience on TV but this was gob-smackingly intense.Those men who make electricity from bikes at Glastonbury must have been peddling awfully hard. In sympathy, on parallel stages, Janelle Monae and Glasvegas lead singer James Allan collapse in heaps of sweat soaked exhaustion, while Whiley and Radcliffe cradle each on the sofa in post-Coldplay euphoria. It looked like quite a night. 13:51 Talking of The Magnets (see 12:55 item) you can read a Telegraph feature on them by Thomas H Green here . 13:45 The dreadful cliche "a ring of steel" is apparently being used to describe heightened security around American singer Beyoncé - tighter security than for U2 and Coldplay. Hats off, though to Jessie J (below), who performed yesterday from a throne as she ignored doctors' advice to skip the mudfest because of a broken leg. 13:39 Chris Moyles tweets (@CHRISDJMOYLES) Proud of myself for doing Glastonbury properly.

Just told my driver that the hotel offered to clean my wellies and I said No! #ikeepitreal 13:31 Prime Minister David Cameron said he and wife Samantha were "devastated" by the death of Christopher Shale, the chairman of West Oxfordshire Conservative Association. 13.20 Michael Eavis has held a press conference following this morning's discovery of a dead body at Glastonbury. Read Telegraph news story: Christopher Shale, a senior member of David Cameron's Tory constituency, has been found dead after apparently committing suicide in a portable toilet at Glastonbury Festival. Police cordon off an area of Glastonbury after the discovery of a body. PA photo 12:55 Glastonbury is not just about the superstars. One fine rising band - an A cappella band called The Magnets - are playing today and we chat to them as they drive down to Glastonbury for their 4pm show on the Acoustic Stage. Nic Doodson was resting his voice (doing the driving) but James Fortune filled me on the band's hectic schedule.

They have just come back from Australia and after Glastonbury play a variety of interesting gigs, including the Edinburgh Fringe and a concert as support act to Blondie in Kew Gardens. They are at the Leicester Square Theatre in September. Fortune says: "Some of us met at university but we have one member from New Jersey, where there is a strong tradition of vocal harmony groups. We like to take unlikely songs and make them unusual. We have done Kraftwerk songs and down slow down versions of Lady Gaga songs too." So will they get the chance to enjoy Glastonbury? "Oh yeah, I should imagine we'll be enjoying Glastonbury in an intoxicated state," Fortune jokes. The Magnets, an A cappello band, are playing the Acoustic Stage at 4pm 12:35 Good reviews of Tinie Tempah yesterday, even though the BBC had warned about him using "naughty language". Thanks to the critic who pointed out that (@martinchilton) had mistakenly spelled his name as Tiny Temper in a tweet. The dangers of using irony duly noted. Tinie Tempah struts his stuff at Glastonbury.

Yes, we know he is not called Tiny Temper 12:30 Good afternoon and welcome to a fresh day of Glastonbury coverage. Major acts today include Beyoncé Knowles, who is headlining the Pyramid Stage on her Glastonbury debut - one of a small handful of woman in 40 years to do so. Beyonce has reportedly spent the past three weeks in the UK, at a rehearsal studio in London - so she should be ready. Paul Simon, Plan B, Primal Scream - and the Wombles are among the other acts appearing today. Coldplay at Glastonbury 2011 – review | Music | The Guardian Coldplay at Glastonbury 2011 – review 4 / 5 stars Saturday 25 June 2011 20.05 EDT First published on Saturday 25 June 2011 20.05 EDT Share on Messenger Close It's not easy being the boy band U2 when the real thing played the night before. Guitarist Jonny Buckland got his apologies in early, telling the NME last week: "We hope U2 do a B-sides set with no lights".

Before they walked onto the Pyramid stage, Coldplay were Glastonbury 2011's forgotten headliners. U2's mere presence on Friday generated intense debate and booking Beyoncé for Sunday night induced squeaks of delight. Yet a band whose last album, Viva La Vida, sold almost 7 million copies in 2008 somehow slipped into the background. But that level of success is no fluke. Coldplay are a light, bright pop act, specialists in the kind of non-specific, one size fits all emotion that plays well in front of the Pyramid stage. Crucially, they're also on home turf, this being their third headline appearance in nine years. It doesn't hold the same fear for them that it did for four men from Dublin. So after the symphonic intro music and fireworks, no one cares that the opener, new track Hurts Like Heaven, is basically a Walt Disney version of Arcade Fire's Keep the Car Running . Besides, it's only there to kill time until the audience have made it through the bog. What follows sets the mood properly, with shameless crowd-pleaser Yellow followed by In my Place and not long after, Scientist. It works, too.

In the end they needn't have been quite so modest. Sure, they benefited from facing an audience who'd spent an afternoon in the sun, and who were still on a high from a spectacular Elbow performance , but they're also a kinder, more welcoming proposition than U2. So it didn't matter that they needed two shots at new song Us Against the World, or that it was a bit sappy. As with their earlier European festival performances, the whirling Charlie Brown was the standout new song, a definite advance on the still forgettable Every Teardrop is a Waterfall, even if the lyrics were guff about "running wild" and "glowing in the dark." And despite front-loading the set, they kept plenty in reserve, Viva La Vida winning the prize for most joyous sing-a-long, at least until Clocks kicked off the encore. A victory that few predicted. Who knew a band this big could sneak up on people?

After the bravery of the Wombles in the pitiless sun, Beyoncé delivers a gobsmacking performance for the festival's finale, writes Alexis Petridis Published: 26 Jun 2011 Photographer David Levene on how Glastonbury looks through a lens, and what happens when the U2 frontman decides he wants to stop mid-set and take your picture Published: 26 Jun 2011 Alexis Petridis, Rosie Swash and Tim Jonze review the highlights of this year's Glasto, including Beyonce's amazing performance. We hear Ms Dynamite's view of playing festivals and we've got a live track from Isobel Anderson Published: 27 Jun 2011 John Harris trudges through the mud in search of the squeezed middle and Glastonbury festival's political soul, and talks to Billy Bragg and anti-Bono campaigners along the way Published: 25 Jun 2011 Coldplay Will Headline Glastonbury Festival This Year - BuzzFeed News Your Post Has Been Launched! Fabulous! Don't forget to share with your friends on Twitter and Facebook.

Coldplay Will Headline Glastonbury Festival This Year The band will perform on the Pyramid Stage on Sunday night. Rossalyn Warren BuzzFeed News Reporter 1. Coldplay are the first headline act confirmed for Glastonbury Festival, billed to perform on the Pyramid Stage during the weekend festival in June. Matt Cowan / Getty Images ID: 8009365 2. Glastonbury will take place from June 22 to 26, and the four-piece band will play on the Sunday night. — Coldplay (@coldplay) ID: 8009361 This will be the fourth year Coldplay have headlined Glastonbury – meaning they will have topped the bill more times than any other act. The band previously headlined in 2002, 2005, and 2011. The event in Somerset, England, is billed as the “world’s biggest festival” , and is expected to attract at least 135,000 revellers.

On 7 February, Coldplay played the Super Bowl halftime show in Santa Clara, California, in front of a television audience of around 112 million, performing alongside special guests Beyoncé and Bruno Mars. Following the performance, the band’s latest album, A Head Full of Dreams, shot to the top of the UK album chart. No other headline acts have been confirmed for Glastonbury Festival 2016. ID: 8009359 Morrissey to open for U2 at Glastonbury festival | Music | The Guardian Glastonbury festival Morrissey to open for U2 at Glastonbury festival Singer returns to Worthy Farm as festival organisers announce star-studded bill including Beyoncé, Cee Lo Green and Elbow Thursday 14 April 2011 09.58 EDT First published on Thursday 14 April 2011 09.58 EDT Close This article is 5 years old The first time he played the world's biggest and best-loved music festival in 1984, the set had to be cut short as fans stormed the stage.

Twenty-seven years later, and still with a devoted fanbase, Morrissey will return to Glastonbury, playing the festival's opening night (Friday 24 June), warming up for headline act U2. Fellow Mancunians Elbow are also on the bill, organisers announced as they released the full lineup, playing the Pyramid stage before Glastonbury stalwarts Coldplay headline on the Saturday evening. Festival organiser Emily Eavis said this year will be one of Glastonbury's most exciting offerings. "To get all of these incredible artists is really quite a feat," she said. "I think this is one of most eclectic lineups yet." Elbow will raise the crowd with their "lovely, celebratory and uplifting" music, she said, while Queens of the Stone Age – who are going head-to-head on the Other Stage against Beyoncé on the Sunday evening – will go some way to keeping everyone happy. "That will be fantastic because they will appeal to very different people," she added. There are also acts geared toward Glastonbury's older fans. Sunday will see Don McLean play the Pyramid stage in the afternoon, followed later by Paul Simon.

Blues legend BB King will play the same stage on Friday, while Jimmy Cliff and Kool and the Gang will feature on West Holts. Simon is expected to play a range of hits, said Eavis. "Everyone should check out Paul Simon. He's going to do a total mix of his songs, so it will be like a greatest hits set." American band Fleet Foxes will play the Other Stage before Mumford & Sons on Friday, while White Lies will warm up for the Chemical Brothers on Saturday. There will also be acts appealing to urban music fans, with rising British rap star Tinie Tempah taking to the Pyramid stage on Saturday and US R&B singer Cee Lo Green at West Holts on Friday, while dance fans can take their pick from Chase and Status, DJ Shadow and Robyn, with Annie Mac and John Digweed also playing DJ sets. Up-and-coming artists include Anna Calvi, James Blake, Jessie J, Warpaint and the Vaccines. Festival founder Michael Eavis could barely contain his glee at getting Morrissey back to Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset, where the festival takes place. Morrissey last played Glastonbury in 2004.

"When the Smiths played in 1984 it changed everything for us. We had just been about hippy bands until then and when they performed it was like a bolt of lightning," he said. "There were no fences in those days – we thought fences were wicked – and when the crowd started invading the stage we had to close the set. It got everyone talking about us." Coldplay's performance on the Saturday evening will be "the climax of their career", while U2's headline set on Friday will have no shortage of "razzmatazz", he promised. "It is going to be an enormous set for Coldplay and I think U2 will be one of the biggest moments of the summer. They might have been on a long tour, but our wait to get them at Glastonbury has been even longer," he said. Glastonbury's night-time playgrounds, such as Shangri La and Trash City, will have more venues, with the festival also creating a new performance "bull-ring" from donated lock timbers. Last year, the festival's 40th anniversary, was blessed with memorable performances and uninterrupted sunshine, but Eavis is confident it can be bettered.

"I think we have the best headliners we've ever had, and if we get the sunshine I think it will be even better than last year." • The Guardian is the official media partner of Glastonbury festival

Question: Who was the headline act on the 'Pyramid Stage' on Sunday at the 2011 Glastonbury Festival?
Answer: BEYONCE